Aim To Be Fruitful, Not Productive
Why the Modern View of Productivity Is Not Biblical and What To Do Instead
It's better to be fruitful than to be productive.
That phase has stuck with me ever since a friend of mine relayed those words over a short video chat.
What's the difference between being fruitful and being productive? If they were identical in definition, there would be no need to have separate words. Since they are different, here's what Webster's 1828 dictionary says for them both:
FRUITFUL, adjective
1. Very productive; producing fruit in abundance; as fruitful soil; a fruitful tree; a fruitful season.
PRODUCTIVE, adjective
1. Having the power of producing; as, productive labor is that which increases the number or amount of products; opposed to unproductive labor.
This makes it a bit more clear. To be productive is to produce, and to be fruitful is to produce in abundance. At first glance, it seems that to be fruitful is just to be productive at a higher level of output.
Unfortunately, trying to produce more for the sake of producing more is a recipe for burnout. Burnout is not fun, and I've experienced it first hand between January and March of 2024.
We Can Burn Fast for Only a Moment
At the end of 2023, I was aiming for a promotion at my full-time job. I picked up as much work as I could, outperformed everyone, and even picked up the slack for a lackluster coworker who ended up getting fired at the start of 2024.
I was on fire and churned through more work in the last quarter of 2023 than I had in the previous two quarters. On top of all that, I was acting as the team lead since we had none, helping everyone who needed assistance.
This was all fine until promotion time came, and while I was given a 110% on my review, I did not get promoted. That news drained the fuel I used to keep that fire burning, and within 24 hours I burned out.
This led me to be even less productive than I was a year earlier when no promotion was up for grabs. I was barely getting by and spent much time trying to figure out how to get back into the groove I had in 2023.
A Biblical Perspective on Fruitfulness
From the biblical perspective, to be fruitful is to "bear fruit." The term productive does not appear in Strong's concordance, so we'll have to stick with Webster's definition. In breaking down the phrase "to bear fruit," we end up with a clearer idea of what the Bible is telling us.
Fruit is the outcome of a slow, precise, and fertilized work of a plant. Since we are called to bear fruit and not only leaves or bark, we must too embrace the slow, precise, and fertilized work that produces good fruit.
Rushing about from task to task, or even worse, trying to multitask, will only produce surface-level results without any real substance behind the outcome. It would be like the fig tree that our Lord cursed for bearing no fruit.
Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And presently the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! [Matthew 21:18-20 KJV]
It seems here that Christ walked to the tree to eat of its fruit not only because he was hungry but it probably looked like it would contain fruit. A beautiful tree with deep green leaves and a hearty brown trunk. But when our Lord came upon it and found it was fruitless, he cursed the tree so it would never produce fruit in the future.
This Can Often Be Said About Us
We can relate this to us and our shallow work we tend to get consumed with. Our work, be it a job or a business, can eat up all our time. We look busy day in and day out but what do we have to show for it? Are we bearing fruit for the Messianic Kingdom, or are we like the fig tree and only appear to have fruit?
The best way to address this is to slow down and focus. Pick one or two tasks to accomplish each day that will actually matter past the current day. Something that will move your needle closer to being a more godly man. Something worth contributing to Christ's Kingdom on Earth.
5 Tips to Being Fruitfully Productive
1. Determine the impact you want to have for The Kingdom.
2. Write down one goal to achieve in the next three months.
3. Create weekly milestones to reach in order to achieve your three-month goal.
4. At the start of each week, plan out the tasks that need to happen in order to meet your next milestone.
5. Execute one task each day that will get you closer to your milestone goal for the week.
This cursing of the barren fig tree represents the state of hypocrites in general; and so it teaches us, that the fruit of fig trees may justly be expected from those that have the leaves. Christ looks for the power of religion from those that make profession of it... - Matthew Henry